Dreaming in Japanese

Brett describes this dream on Rainbowhill Language Lab, "A place for learning about Japanese language and culture."

I was walking along the bank of a beautiful river, 500 years ago in feudal Japan. The water was clear but smoke from a nearby battle filled the air. A whistling sound came through the air and with a thud an ornate katana [刀｜かたな] hit the opposite bank and slid into the water.

Swords don't swim.

As the sword slipped beneath the surface of the swiftly flowing river it began to talk to me in a lilting western dailect of Japanese. The sword implored me to spring to its rescue.

I dived in without hesitation to its cries of  助けてください (Help me!), and reached it just as it fell to the gravel at the bottom of the river. Holding it aloft as I rose to the surface it continued to talk to me in an excited fashion. I felt as though I was embracing an old freind.

Brett Fyfield (this is from eduFire) is a CELTA qualified English teacher with over 6 years experience teaching in Japan and Australia. He is currently working at University as a international student adviser by day, and a Japanese Teacher by night.

Just becoming more and more relaxed until he was gone.

I found this to be such a beautiful memorial that I decided to re-blog the entire dream (which is not the entire blog entry).

- photo credit: Sherri (on sherrisreadingjubilee.blogspot.com)

It has been sunny for five days now. Last night I had a dream in which Harry the dog was old, and he went to sleep in the sunshine out by the end of the driveway, lying on his side, totally relaxed and warm, and he gently and peacefully died there in his sleep, just becoming more and more relaxed until he was gone. In the dream I was in the living room, and when I looked out the window, I saw that my father, who loved flowers, had planted rows of ornamental grasses and cabbages at the end of the driveway there, and then had erected this huge and really ornate and very implausible bird house condominium contraption as well. In the dream, EG said to me, "He knew about Harry, and didn't want you to be sad every time you looked out there."

The dreamer is a college professor, married for seventeen years. She is mom to three kids and lives with three labrador retrievers, two rabbits, and two cats.

A dress darker than black ... a void of space to be worn

Maria D'Isidoro writes about a dream involving a dressmaker who works the loom with spider legs.

I dreamt of the dress shop the next night. It was night in the train car and lights burned low in the old fashioned sconces. I pulled the scarves apart, as I’d done a few days before, and stepped in. The incense was thicker; I would’ve chocked on it if it weren’t a dream. The shop keeper was there, too. I had been right to compare her to a spider before. From behind her, long, hairy spokes flexed in the air. They looked like giant tarantula legs. After a minute, I realized that they were sticking out of her back. Hide the deadly black tarantula. 

She was seated at a loom in the corner. ... more

Maria D'Isidoro writes her very unusual and interesting blog "The Box" in Baltimore, Maryland.

Wonderful, fat, deep red tomatoes

Melissa Greene had a dream about tomatoes and describes it on her blog "Get to the Inside."

I am struck by how many of these darned tomatoes I actually have. I begin plucking them from the vines and realize they are real gems. Some are fat and deep red, others are smaller and perfect. They vary in shade and size, but they all seem wonderful to me. ... more

Melissa Greene, LPC-MHSP, is a native Tennesseean, married with two children. She works as a Licensed Professional Counselor, providing treatment to adults, children, and their families. Melissa specializes in trauma and addictions. She is also a songwriter and poet.

A girl told me that it cost $2001 to use that bathroom.

Dawn Meehan, author of "Because I said so... And Other Tales from a Less-Than-Perfect Parent," had a dream in which she could not find a toilet.

I dreamt that I needed to pee, but I couldn't find a bathroom anywhere. Everywhere I went, the bathrooms were full and people were waiting to use them. At one point, my friend Julie and I met another mutual friend's mom. For some reason, she was a little old lady (in real life, she is not a little old lady). This sweet, little old lady looked like she should be baking or knitting or sitting in a rocking chair with a shawl about her shoulders regaling the younguns with tales from days of yore. Instead, she sat at a table talking to us and dropping f-bombs that shocked the heck out of me and Julie. She told me it was good I was getting divorced so I could marry Doug. (I have no idea who Doug is in real life.)     ... more

"Because I Said So" is "The Offical Blog of Author and Mom Blogger Dawn Meehan."  The dream goes on for several more paragraphs and has 30 comments so far.

The Pizza Guy is a Vampire

Heather, writing on "Inich ... Like Spinach!!" asks if you have ever had one those kind of dreams that just stay with you AFTER you’ve woken up?

I was walking to my car, trying to get away from someone that night and passed a pizza man and stole his pizza. (the delivery guy was the guy that was behind the registers at Big Lots a few times..we’ve chatted and his nice.)   I told him I was the new delivery person and said I’d deliver it.  But had no intention of doing so.  I only wanted to get away from whomever was following me. ... more

Heather is an Air Force veteran, photography buff, full time working Mom and wife.

President Bush in a bar doodling on a napkin

A dream about meeting George W. and Dick Cheney (and the dreamer did not get shot in the face):

Last night I dreamt that Bessie and I ran into former President Bush in a bar.  He was drinking a highball and doodling on a napkin.  Bessie asked for his autograph and he gave her the doodled napkin. We then ended up having dinner with Dubya, Barbara Walters, and Dick Cheney.  

... more

The blogger, Mo, lives in Michigan and blogs about his life (and his dreams) at "It's a Blog Eat Blog World".

'Avatar' Director James Cameron on dreams

The director of 'Avatar', James Cameron, was interviewed by Terry Gross for Fresh Air on Feb. 18 and had interesting things to say about dreams.

A lot of the imagery in "Avatar" comes from dreams that I've had over time. I can remember distinctly having a dream in college of a glowing, bioluminescent forest and getting up and very quickly sketching it with oil pastels, trying to get the colors down, trying to get, you know, what I had imagined in the dream down on paper and feeling this great sense that I hadn't succeeded. It just was this ugly thing. It wasn't what I had seen in the dream.

So, you know, part of I think that's part of what drives a lot of artists is dream imagery and the kind of subconscious associations that happen in dreams.

I know the surrealist artists strongly believed that their mission was to translate to the canvas images they'd had in dreams without any attempt to analyze or mediate them and that that was kind of their ethos, and I kind of adopted a little bit of that when I was making "Avatar." I thought, you know, if I like an image, I'm going to put it in the movie, and Im not going to try to justify it.

So, you know, you see floating mountains in the film. They're never explained. Now, I happened to have, you know, sort of reverse-engineered a scientific explanation of how those mountains float, but every time I tried to shoehorn it into the movie, I just found that it was unnecessary explanation. People would accept that they had been transported to this amazing place where the rules were different, and it was okay for mountains to float. And it turned out that that technical explanation was completely unnecessary. 

The dream curator values blog posts that translate into words images from dreams without any attempt to analyze or mediate them.  

Trouser Press: Dreams of being with rock stars

"Last night I dreamt of Jane Wiedlin", one thread on a forum at Trouser Press, includes many dreams by rock fans about being with rock stars.

I had a dream that I was tarring a roof with Lux and Ivy from The Cramps. I fell off the roof and onto another version of the same roof ... over and over and over. Until I woke up.  

 ... more

Trouser Press, online at TrouserPress.com since 2002, began with the contents of Trouser Press Record Guides, highly opinionated review books of alternative rock.  It includes reviews, a message board, merchandise, and a forum where readers post their dreams.  This one was posted by HollowbodyKay.  There are others. 

An Italian drinking tea

Riley LaShea, blogging as "Random Riley", asks "What exactly is the meaning of a dream in which an Italian is drinking tea?"

I was at my Aunt Mary’s house (my real great aunt). But Aunt Mary’s house wasn’t Aunt Mary’s house. Her real house is an old two-story with lots of dark wood and antique fixtures. The dream house was a three-story house with the same dark wood and antique fixtures, but everything was far grander. The entire house just oozed Victorian beauty and charm. ... 

I like this part:

The sunlight shone upon her, giving her an ethereal glow… and making her hair look oh so shiny. She leaned against the counter and sipped her tea, carrying on a conversation with me in both English and Italian, which I amazingly understood.  ... more

Riley LaShea is a writer (which seems clear enough from this sample).  You can learn more at rileylashea.com.

But I Was Dreaming: Teaching Sculpting Class

But I Was Dreaming: Feb. 7, 2010:

I found myself at a sculpting class, and apparently I was supposed to be the teacher. I was trying my best, but it was frustrating because I don't know anything about sculpting. 

... more

But I Was Dreaming posts several dreams each day.   This anxiety dream seems very real to me.

But I Was Dreaming: Chaotic Vignettes

But I Was Dreaming: Jan. 7, 2010:

First I was at a mine where the miners had to hold on to a conveyor belt to get home. Someone threw a kitten on the belt to try to get one of the miners to let go, but someone saved it and gave it to me. I named it something ridiculous.
... more.

But I Was Dreaming posts several dreams each day.   This set of chaotic vignettes was published a month ago.

A simple dream, hoping to change things

Matthew Wilding had a dream, and she was in it, and he was in it with her. 

I was at a house I recognized as my Mother's house from years ago, even though in retrospect it wasn't. It felt like the late 1990s or early 2000s. When I set my bike to the side of the house and went upstairs, I asked my mom what the date was, and she told me it was March 3rd. I then asked the year. "2007."
  ... more

Matt Wilding is a Boston-based comedic writer and performer, but this dream is more profound than funny.

robertlanglondon: A horse that charmed the world

robertlanglondon: I had a dream when i was in Paris. 
It last 3 hours and never felt so real.

I had a dream ... about a horse that charmed the world.
This horse could only be communicated through the internet and with this it started seducing everyone.
It managed to do this to my friend and she fell in lust.

    ... more

robertlang, 27, is into fashion a runway fashion photographer and writes about his dreams on robertlanglondon.

But I Was Dreaming: Underwater with a Large Alligator

But I Was Dreaming: February 1, 2010:

I dreamed that I was underwater with a large alligator. We were chest to chest, gently swirling around and around in the water. I knew that at any moment the alligator could kill me and that if I just continued our strange underwater dance, he would remain calm and all would be well. I was keenly aware of the danger, yet felt strangely peaceful.

 But I Was Dreaming posts several dreams each day.  They are anonymous, but with some information about the dreamer, in this case, female, Age 50, USA.

Dream Log: the Dolphin in the Library

The Dragon's Eye View - Dream Log: the Dolphin in the Library

The dream got interesting when the setting shifted slightly. I don't normally dream "in furry", but at some point, the PoV character became an anthropomorphic dolphin named Jan, and the meeting room/convention hall was now underwater -- and had been for a very long time. Kelp was now a significant part of the decor.

Jan was still in contact with the same mad scientist, though, via radio or more esoteric means, and was still on the way to his office/lab/whatever. Now, however, she had to leave the Deeps to go to the surface world -- and the passage had a Guardian.

The guardian was an anthropomorphic white tiger ... more

This dream was selected from athelind.livejournal.com ("Your Obedient Serpent, The Boojum Snark")

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Since this blog will be devoted to dreams it is odd to start with a movie, but The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus was in many ways the inspiration for this blog.  After seeing the movie I had vivid dreams for a week.  If you enjoy your dreams, see the film.  It exploits computer graphics to render dream sequences in the most amazing ways.

Dreams Curated Online

From Freud to Dali to shamans to your own bed at night, dreams are engaging, but outside of our normal life, and too soon forgotten. This blog will be devoted to presenting interesting dreams that have been described online. If you would like to submit a feed, or a single dream, write to dreamcurator at gmail.com.